Hairopoulos: For OU's Stoops and A&M's Sumlin, Cotton Bowl marks new rivalry between old friends

2/11

JERRY LAIZURE/AP

Mike Leach: Leach left Norman in 1999 after one season as the Sooners' offensive coordinator to take the head job at Texas Tech. Leach's Air Raid offense took the Big 12 by storm, and he never had a losing season in 10 years as Tech's coach, going 84–43 overall.

Soon after the December announcement that their teams
would meet in Friday’s AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops
and Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin caught up with each other in New York, as
the friends usually do when in the city for the annual National Football
Foundation awards functions.

The two sneaked off to a restaurant to chat, on this occasion drawing curious
glances.

“People walk by and look and do a double-take because they couldn’t believe
we were sitting there talking,” said Sumlin, whose coaching approach was shaped
in part by working an assistant under Stoops at OU from 2003-07.

With their first clash as head coaches now just days away, they still showed
no signs of tension during a formal news conference Wednesday in Las Colinas,
even when Stoops and Sumlin tugged on either side of the Cotton Bowl’s Field
Scovell championship trophy like a Thanksgiving wishbone. It was just for the
cameras.

Mentor-protege meetings like Friday’s at Cowboys Stadium are becoming
increasingly inevitable as Stoops’ coaching tree grows. Sumlin is one of five
former OU offensive coordinators under Stoops who left to become a head coach.
Despite Stoops’ and Sumlin’s continued chumminess, Sumlin has also dissected the
situation like this:

“You never really like in this profession playing really good friends because
it’s awkward at first,” he said, “and then you try to beat the hell out of each
other.”

Recruiting rivals

Stoops and Sumlin developed a relationship when both were recruiting South
Florida as assistant coaches, Stoops for Kansas State and Sumlin for Minnesota.

“We were chasing the same kids all the time,” Stoops said.

Later, Sumlin was working as the offensive coordinator at A&M under R.C.
Slocum — another mentor of Sumlin’s who was inducted into the College Football
Hall of Fame during the New York trip in December— when the Aggies surprised
Stoops’ No. 1 Sooners, 30-26, at Kyle Field in 2002.

Before the next season, with the Slocum era over at A&M, Stoops hired
Sumlin. (Oklahoma beat A&M in 2003, 77-0).

“I had great respect for Kevin before he was the o-coordinator there where
they beat us,” Stoops said.

Stoops brought Sumlin to Norman as a tight ends coach and special teams
coordinator. The role “changed my life,” Sumlin said.

Sumlin said he went from having an isolated focus on offense during games,
obsessing over the next series, to developing a broader approach.

Sumlin, whose five seasons in Norman included two unsuccessful trips to the
national championship game, was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in his
final season. He left to become the head coach at Houston for four seasons,
before taking the A&M job a year ago. He infused a new demeanor in the
Aggies, leading them to a 10-2 record in their first season as SEC members, an
accomplishment few if any were brazen enough to predict.

“You see it in what he’s doing now; he’s is an incredibly bright coach,”
Stoops said. “What Kevin brings to Texas A&M is the way he relates with his
players and how those players want to play for him. He has a way to bring
attitude to his team. I thought the same thing when he was with us.”

Family atmosphere

Sumlin said he has heard before that there are similarities in how he runs
his program to Stoops’ ways. Yeah, he takes that as a compliment. Stoops has won
a share of eight Big 12 championships and the 2000 national title in his 14
seasons at OU. Stoops is nine victories away from topping Barry Switzer as OU’s
winningest coach.

“The winning culture that Bob has created at Oklahoma is something that you
have to be inside of to see and understand and feel how it works,” Sumlin said.
“It’s how you do things on a daily basis and the expectations level that you
have with players, with the program, with your coaches, how you treat people and
the manner in which you do it.”

Sumlin has repeatedly mentioned the family atmosphere under Stoops at
Oklahoma, where family dinners and the coaching staff’s kids playing their own
game of football during a Sooners’ practice weren’t unusual.

Sumlin’s relationships with the school are still deep. OU running backs coach
Cale Gundy said he considers Sumlin one of his closest friends. Their families
were only separated by three houses when Sumlin lived in Norman. Sumlin actually
recruited OU defensive end David King, a fifth-year senior from Houston.

Asked for their favorite memories of each other, it sent Stoops and Sumlin
chortling, a bit like fraternity brothers.

“I can’t speak about it to the media,” Stoops said.

The Cotton Bowl may be the first meeting between Sumlin and Stoops as head
coaches, but the two compete with each other year-round for recruits. It hasn’t
hurt their relationship. The result of Friday’s game isn’t likely to either.

“Business is business,” Stoops said of recruiting battles.

“It’s like playing golf,” Sumlin said. “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you
lose. You might get upset a little bit, but you come back through it. That’s
just the way it is.”

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.